This invention relates to a novel dental hand piece for utilization in the cleaning of teeth.
The most common method in widespread use today, among dentists, for the cleaning of teeth consists of the utilization of an abrasive polishing paste in combination with a dental handpiece having a rotatable elastomeric polishing or prophy cup secured thereto. The paste is normally carried or disposed in a relatively small jar or container and the polishing cup is manually dipped into the supply of paste for coating of the cup with the polishing or cleaning material. The coated polishing cup is then applied to the surface of the teeth and the handpiece is actuated by the dentist's usual power equipment for rotating rotating the cup. This procedure of dipping the polishing cup into the supply of paste and applying the coated cup to the surface of the teeth is not only time-consuming for the dentist but also the normal rotational speed of the coated cup causes the paste to be thrown from the cup due to centrifugal force. As a result, the polishing of the teeth is unduly time-consuming because of the constant dipping and the visual obstruction of the tooth being cleaned by the paste and of discomfort to both the patient and the dentist due to the paste being thrown around.
In addition to the aforementioned disadvantages, the same dental handpiece is used over and over for all patients, thereby transferring gems from the mouth of one patient to the mouth of another. Obviously, it is a very unsanitary process to place the same dental instrument into the mouths of different patients without sterilizing the instrument between patients. Most dentists recognize that such a procedure is at best unsanitary and fraught with danger but they have no choice in the matter since the head of the dental instrument, into which the polishing cup is inserted, has a number of gears therein which are caused to rotate and the gears are packed in grease and sealed. If the dentist tried to sterilize the instrument the grease would break down and not perform its lubricating function and within a short period of time the gears would jam, thereby rendering the instrument inoperable.